McClellan's Unique Deal With Air Force and EPA

McClellan Business Park in Sacramento has taken the title to more than 500 acres of land formerly used by the United States Air Force. Dozens of sites at the park will be cleaned thanks to a deal with the Air Force.

The Air Force put $20 million in a special environmental cleanup
fund when it handed over title to the property.

Alan Hersh with the Business Park says the agreement allows the
operators of the park to begin redevelopment work more quickly even
as dozens of sites on the property are cleaned up under the
direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, "A
hundred percent of the property is not contaminated. It's
just specific spots within the property have the contamination.
This summer we'll take on about seven sites -a lot of them are
drain ways that have some low-level contamination in them."

The EPA says this agreement is one of the first of its kind
and it would like to see more of what it calls "privatized
cleanups" -possibly at the Riverbank Army Ammunitions Plant and the
Concord Naval Weapons Station.

The new agreement brings the total Air Force payout to
42-million dollars to treat or remove dirt on dozens of
contaminated sites on 1100 acres of land. This is the third
such transfer of property from the Air Force to the business
park.